Sunday, October 11, 2015

Iraq Gives Up On The U.S.

Hegemony: Iraq may ask Russia to bomb IS targets within its borders, giving Moscow "definitely a bigger role than the Americans." Will we look back on this as the moment when America ceased being a superpower?

Russia may no longer be Communist and follow Lenin's theories of seeking world revolution. But a leading Iraqi parliamentarian's call Wednesday for Russian military assistance against the terrorist Islamic State would have been music to the ears of Khrushchev or Brezhnev.

Why? It's exactly the role the Soviet Union sought for itself in the Mideast, as evidenced in its alliance with Egypt until the presidency of Anwar Sadat began in the early 1970s.

"We might be forced to ask Russia to launch airstrikes

in Iraq soon," said Hakim al-Zamili, head of the Iraqi

parliament's defense and security committee. AP

"We might be forced to ask Russia to launch airstrikes in Iraq soon," Hakim al-Zamili, chairman of the Iraqi parliament's defense and security committee, told Reuters. "We are seeking to see Russia have a bigger role in Iraq. . . Yes, definitely a bigger role than the Americans."

As Reuters points out, this means Iraq's government, and the Shiite militias fighting IS that it backs, "question the United States' resolve in fighting ISIS militants, who control a third of the country." What's more, "They say U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are ineffective."

Syria's ambassador to Russia now claims that Moscow in just a few days of bombing has destroyed 40% of IS infrastructure.